


The Legend Reborn:  Spyral Rising

by munitionsforge (iinfinitesimal)



Category: Legend of Spyro
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Female Characters, Gen, Genderbend, Genderbending, I will add characters as they appear - Freeform, Multi, Nonbinary Character, Retelling, Worldbuilding, aha! am able to edit these on computer now
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-03
Updated: 2020-01-07
Packaged: 2021-02-25 05:27:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21830725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iinfinitesimal/pseuds/munitionsforge
Summary: A twist on the tale of the purple dragon.The Realms have never seen a darker time.  Guardians lie imprisoned, eggs are stolen and murdered, and war blazes through the land, consuming lives as kindling for the Dark Master's evil schemes.And yet, there is a fungus forest that harbors dragonflies as they shelter from and shut out the horrors of war; and within that forest, a young dragon learns that there may be hope yet.{partial genderbend, retelling of the legend of spyro trilogy.  headcanon worldbuilding.  mobile ao3 wont let me do custom tags and keeps suggesting weird stuff}
Relationships: Cynder/Spyro the Dragon, Sparx & Spyro the Dragon
Comments: 10
Kudos: 7





	1. Calm

**Author's Note:**

> im not usually one for direct-parallel renaming like ive done w spyro/spyral but ive gotta keep it at least somewhat recognizable
> 
> not all characters are genderbent. mostly i wanted this to pass the fuckin bechdel test nshfjsjbd but i also wanted to explore this world through the eyes of a female protag
> 
> im just gonna wing this as i go and also i hope u like headcanon worldbuilding!

**"Forty-six, forty-seven, forty-eight, forty-nine, fifty!" The** sound of paws squelching in mud. "Ready or not, here I come!"

Clumsily, as most young creatures do, the seeker stuck forward, sweeping the area from base. The easiest way to spot her quarry was to find the glow from their wings. That was not to say, however, that every glow was a dragonfly. Starbeetles glowed much the same, for example, but a dragonfly's glow was much brighter.

Hmm, they seemed to have hidden much better this time. But wait, was that...

Aha! A subtle golden sheen of reflective light on the ferns. That had to be Sparx.

Our seeker crept forward, knowing that alerting anyone that she could see them would set them scrambling, which would very much suck, since she couldn't run nearly as fast as the others could fly.

"You're not exactly stealthy, Spyral," said Sparx as he peeked out from behind the tree trunk.

Spyral hesitated only for a moment as she braced her feet into the soft mud and shot forward, digging her claws into the damp, lichenous bark as extra propulsion before she skidded around to a stop on the other side. The commotion caused five other lights to scatter in all directions, screaming and giggling.

"Too slow!" Sparx hovered just out of Spyral's reach, taunting her in typical sibling fashion.

"I still found you! That means you're it!" she retorted, wings flaring up in indignation.

" _Finding_ is not _catching,_ though, dirtball!" With that, Sparx zipped away.

Spyral's nostrils flared. "I'm going to crush your wings when I catch you!"

She dug her paws into the mud and took off. She was nowhere near as fast as Sparx, but he had a habit of going just slow enough to taunt her. And that's just what he did, until Spyral ran out of breath and had to stop.

"Man, you know, I keep telling you to work out more. Maybe if you did, you'd be able to actually _ca_ —" A frogweed interrupted him by swallowing him whole.

"SPARX!" Spyral threw herself at the frogweed and forced it to "vomit" him back up. She jumped over and extended her wings toward him. "You okay?"

"Ugh," he muttered. "I think it almost digested part of my wing. Oh, stars, and I _stink_!" 

Spyral smirked. "Oh, grow up. You're fine." She reached down and picked him up with her paw, then shook him vigorously while he babbled in alarm.

He finally escaped her grasp, trying to fly away, but he was too disoriented and fell back to the ground, groaning. Spyral cackled.

When the world finally stood still for a moment, Sparx sat up and glared at his sister. "You're the actual devil, you know that?"

Spyral cheesed at him, sitting tall and proud.

Sparx narrowed his eyes and flew to eye level with her. They stared at each other for just a moment before he slapped her nose and took off again.

"HEY!" she shouted after him. It didn't really hurt. "I'M TELLING MOM!!" And the chase was on again.

Spyral sped around corners, twisting her tail around to counterbalance her momentum. Sparx drifted farther and farther away, until the two of them stopped just outside of a creepy-looking cave with what looked like a beetle symbol on the cliff face next to it.

The mouth of it (literally) was the unearthed, fossilized remains of a giant basilisk. The skull loomed over them, mouth closed, as the stories and warnings that their parents told them ran through Spyral's mind.

Sparx drifted forward, slow at first, but then speeding up as he went between its huge fangs.

"Hey!" Spyral called, her wings opening as if she could fly away at any second. "C'mon, Sparx! You know we're not allowed in there!"

Sparx peered at her through the stony remains. "Wha–" His voice cracked, and then he cleared his throat. "What are you gonna do about it, huh? Chicken? That's what you are. You're a fat little chicken that can't fly." He put his hands under his armpits and flapped his elbows. "Bawk! Baawk!"

Spyral furrowed her brow, before backing up, crouching her front end down (with her tail high in the air), giving her hips a little wiggle, and leaping forward at Sparx. As she started to pass through the gap, she folded her wings and put her front paws out to catch herself. Unfortunately, her hips caught against the teeth and stuck her in place.

Sparx started cackling as she struggled to pull herself free, taking off into the cavern. Spyral squirmed and writhed until she was finally able to pull her hips and legs through. She stood there, peering into the abyssal darkness of the cave, waiting for the flicker of light from Sparx, but it wasn't coming. She hesitated, then crept forward, keeping her wings held out to her sides much like a cat would use their whiskers. She tried to keep one wing brushing against the earthy walls at all times, though that didn't always keep her from bumping nose-first into a wall or root in her way.

There was a faint echo from farther in the cave. With her free wing, Spyral cupped the side of her head.

"Hey, has anyone seen a big, purple thing around here? I seem to have lost mine." Yep, that was definitely Sparx.

Keeping her wing against the wall, she quickened her pace, until she turned a corner and saw Sparx illuminating the end of the tunnel. She dashed forward, but not in pursuit.

"Sparx!" she called out. "Come on! We should head back home." She slowed to a walking pace as she approached him.

Sparx drifted lazily out of the tunnel. "So, are we just going to admit that I won, or are you going to–" He cut himself off with a yelp as something grabbed him.

"Hey!" Spyral hopped forward, squinting to see the kidnapper against the evening sun.

Whatever it was, it was nothing she'd ever seen before.

"I thought all you's guys was gone..." it rumbled from underneath layers of bluish grey and white fur. Its colorful face was both long and flat, which was different than any other creature she'd seen. 

A couple more of the creatures hit the dirt in front of her, while the largest one stayed up on top of the ledge it stood on. They made an awful, grating hooting-laughter sound as they charged.

Spyral had never fought anything stronger than a toadweed before, but she fought a lot of those to rescue her dragonfly family. Maybe these weirdos would be similar.

They weren't. Each time she struck, they would dodge out of the way in a really extra side-flip. 

The more they dodged, however, the better she came at predicting and correcting it, and with a slap, swipe, and a smack, the freaks were defeated, scrambling away toward their leader.

The leader leapt down, caged Sparx in-hand. "I've had enough of this!" it said, and raised its foot to stomp out Sparx, while he let out an unholy screech.

"Sparx, look out!" she screamed. The fear and adrenaline forced her to lurch forward and, as if possessed by some long-buried instinct, open her mouth to release a searing hot fan of fire that blew the attacker over and set its fur ablaze. Taking advantage of this opening, Spyral grabbed the cage and dragged it back.

The thing quickly rolled in the dirt, tamping out the flames. It leapt up and looked at the two smaller ones before slapping one on the back of the head and picking the other one up and throwing it to the top of the ledge. "C'mon you mangey monkeys, we gotta report this to Blaze."

The band cleared out pretty fast, and as soon as they were gone, Spyral put her front paws on the base of the cage, gripped the handle with her teeth, and pulled the cage apart. It seemed to only be made of stiff reeds.

"You okay?" she asked Sparx.

"Am I okay? AM I _OKAY_?!" Sparx took to the air and threw his arms up. "What do you _MEAN_ am I okay? What about you? What _was_ that?!"

Spyral looked away for a moment, not really focusing on anything. "I-I don't know..."

Sparx crossed his arms. "Well, its..." he paused. "We...let's go back home."

Spyral looked at him again. "Yeah...yeah... Maybe Dad'll know what's going on."


	2. Anxiety

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aaaaaa im so glad ppl like this so far sksbdksbsmvd  
> also u guys pointing out how catlike spyral is can i just say its only partially on putpose xjsvnsvd  
> i live with six cats so its hard not to picture how a cat would move than anything else

**"Spyral beat them within an inch of their _lives_! I **mean, I totally softened 'em up for her, but then, and you'll never guess this, she came up and started spitting straight-up _fire_! Like, literally!"

Spyral idly watched as Sparx explained. She wasn't really listening—she didn't really need to—and was instead more focused on processing what just happened. In fact, Sparx seemed to be the only one pumped about it.

Their parents, Flash and Nina, just exchanged sad looks.

"You don't believe me? Spyral, c'mon, tell 'em." Sparx speaking directly to her snapped Spyral from her thoughts.

"It's true," she began. "I was just...real scared...and angry...and, and I didn't want Sparx to get smashed and-and-and it just _happened_!"

"No, no. We believe you," Nina said, her voice as calm and soothing as ever. "It's just...we didn't think that this would happen so soon."

"What do you mean?" Spyral asked.

"When we found your egg, we knew that you'd been abandoned from upstream, or else orphaned by the apes—those creatures you fought," Nina continued.

Flash picked up from there, clutching his wife's hand. "We don't know anything about what you are, other than that you're a dragon. We knew one day you would develop elemental powers, but I thought you didn't do that until you were closer to adulthood."

The revelation dizzied Spyral almost instantly. A dragon? That's what she was? The big, scary creatures from their Ghostfall horror stories? "I thought...I thought dragons weren't real?"

"But...if you're a dragon..." Sparx murmured, almost speechless for the first time in his life.

Spyral stood up, with her wings spread just slightly away from her sides. "Am I gonna become a monster? Wha-wh-what if this is just the start? Am I gonna start hurting people? I don't wanna hurt anyone!"

Nina interrupted her. "No! No, I know you're better than that. I raised you better than to hurt people. You're perfectly safe here, and you're no different now than you were this morning."

"But—" Spyral started.

"No 'but's!" This time Flash interrupted her. "You heard your mother. No more dragon-talk. You might be a dragon, but you were raised a dragonfly. You're both in big trouble for going where you _know_ you weren't allowed to go. Both of you are grounded, and you're not to mention _any_ of this to your friends. This is to be kept between us and only us. Am I understood?"

Sparx and Spyral hung their heads. "Yes, sir."

"Good." Flash crossed his arms. "You can go, but you better not leave the village."

The duo left the hut, out into the main village. Small huts, made of various materials from hardened mud to dried reeds to living mushroom surrounded them, with most of the huts being just barely big enough for Spyral to enter, if they were hollowed out. None except her own hut had been built to accomodate someone her size, and even then, she was quickly growing too large.

The evening sun hung beyond the mushroom canopy, casting soft orange light through the breaks. As soon as Sparx and Spyral stepped out of their hut, their friends gathered around.

A blue dragonfly, Buzz, was the first to speak up. "So, like, what was all that about? Are you guys in trouble?"

Sparx crossed his arms and scoffed. "Yeah. We went in that cave that we weren't supposed to."

The rainbow of dragonflies let out a chorus of "ooo"s.

A green one, Skimmer, piped up. "What was in there? What'd you find?"

Sparx and Spyral looked at each other, then back at them. "It was really dark in there," Spyral started. "Sparx got real scared by something in there and came speeding out. I went to tell Dad and we got in trouble for going in."

Sparx gave her an evil glare, then cleared his throat. "I was not _scared_ , I was just...concerned...about you. Ya'know, 'cause you can't fly so you can't get away as fast."

A quiet ripple of snickering spread through their friends.

"But—that aside—we're still allowed to play as long as we stay in the village. So, who's up for tag?" Spyral said, to which she was met with "yeah!"s from everyone.

Skimmer smacked Buzz on the arm and yelled "Tag!" before darting away, soon followed by everyone scattering in different directions.

* * *

Later that night, Spyral lay on the floor of her parents' hut. Nina and Flash were asleep on a hammock hanging from the wall, with Sparx's hammock directly above her.

Slowly, quietly, she edged toward the doorway, pushing aside the foliage curtain separating the outside from inside, and looked up at the canopy. The mushrooms were bright tonight, casting a somber purple on the nighttime pervading the village.

She was scared to sleep. What if it was like those were-skeeto stories? Was she going to grow to a huge size and kill everyone as soon as she fell asleep? Or was she going to slowly deteriorate into a mindless killing machine that stalked the outskirts of the swamp and stole young dragonflies as a snack?

The thought ate her up. The very idea of becoming a ruthless killer made her stomach turn, but what if she had no choice? If she was going to be a danger, then she wanted to be far, far away from here when she did.

On the flip side, though, this revelation made her question the old stories. If she was a dragon the whole time, then why hasn't she been violent before? Was it something she would devolve into later? Was it because she was raised by peaceful dragonflies? Or...maybe...

Were the stories wrong?

What if dragons weren't evil at all, and the dragonflies were just afraid for no reason. That was a dangerous thought. 

"Psst."

The sound made Spyral jolt, but it was just Sparx.

"Can't sleep?" he asked, quietly.

Spyral nodded.

"Me either. I'm worried about you." Sparx came to rest just beside her, leaning against her arm.

"You? Worried about me?" Spyral joked, trying to find some humor in this heavy situation.

"Yeah. Like, are you dangerous now? You've never hurt me before—well not like seriously hurt—but now, what if you do?" It was rare for Sparx to get serious, even with her.

"Maybe I should leave," she whispered.

"Huh?"

"I-if I'm dangerous, then I should leave before I hurt anyone, or worse." The warble of her voice betrayed the tears she waa trying to hold back.

"And what if you're not?" Sparx was careful not to raise his voice, but his tone was stubborn.

"If I'm not, then what if all dragons are like me? What if they're not monsters? Shouldn't I be with my own kind, then?" Spyral looked back up at the canopy. "What if my real family is looking for me?"

" _We're_ your real family. I don't care how huge and scary and fire-breathing you get. Mom and Dad raised us together. You're _my_ sister, and you're _their_ daughter. Nothing's gonna change that," Sparx said.

"But my point," Spyral continued, "is that I'll never know anything about who or what I am unless I go and find out." She scooted the rest of the way through the doorway and stood up.

"Oh, so we're gonna go now?" Sparx said as he hovered up next to her.

"No, I'm going alone. Your place is here. Your destiny is here. Mine's somewhere out there for me to find."

"Uh, no," he said. "I know you, Spyral. You'll get going, then either get lost or go crazy being all alone like that. Besides, I do _not_ wanna catch the fallout when Mom and Dad wake up and you're not here. Like, they would seriously murder me, and I'm less likely to immediately die if I leave with you."

Spyral heaved a sigh. "I guess you're right," she said with a bittersweet smile. "Come on, then. Maybe we can find some dragons through that tunnel again."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ive always found it a little weird that spyros parents just kinda let him leave like nothing like what hinda parent lets their 12yo go out on their own when they know theres dangerous shit around  
> //casually drops a cynder quote on spyral nbd


	3. Journey

**Nighttime only made the cave scarier. The mushrooms' purple light** shone dimly on the petrified skull that made the mouth, and Spyral had to swallow her fear before looking at Sparx, and back at the skull. Okay. She stepped back, and got into pouncing position again, wiggling her hips to achieve optimal position. After a few deep breaths, she sucked un a huge gulp of air and held it before charging forward once again, with her wings pressed tightly to her sides and her front paws forward.

Her hips caught on the teeth again. Seemed like she couldn't quite jump high enough to avoid it. As her momentum broke, the air escaped her lungs in a puff of bright orange flame that briefly illuminated the tunnel. Nothing but dirt, mushrooms, and roots.

Once again, she unwedged herself as Sparx joined her.

"Okay, I will _never_ get tired of that."

Spyral gave him a dirty look and huffed at him, a plume of smoke escaping through her nostrils.

The tunnel was a little easier to navigate this time, now that they'd been through it twice. Sparx stayed a little lower to the ground than usual, illuminating the path for Spyral.

"So," Sparx began. "Let's say we meet a dragon. What's the plan?"

Spyral sighed. "I really don't know. I have no idea what dragons are really like. They might be anything."

Sparx nodded. "Yeah. Maybe we should just try to stay low, and greet from a distance so if they charge we can just run."

"Yeah." That thought didn't inspire any confidence.

The walking. Stars, the walking. Each step fueled Spyral's anxiety. That wasn't even to mention that every noise she heard made her tense up, worried that it was another band of apes.

Wait. What was that?

A shadow flitted across the ground, which made Spyral stop in her tracks. Her nighttime vision wasn't the best, but she definitely saw that. She looked up immediately, just in time to see another shape against the moonlight.

"Psst, Sparx!" she whispered. "Sparx, there's apes. We have to hide."

Sparx buzzed over to a rock formation shaded by the needle willows, and they took cover. Sparx settled down on a rock, and stopped glowing, while Spyral jumped behind the rocks and pulled a loose, dead branch down overtop them. They both kept their faces out from the shelter, peering up at the sky and watching as dozens, maybe hundreds, of apes leapt past. The haunting trills and cackles echoed through the still night air.

After a few moments, the canopy was still.

"Okay... Alright, c'mon, Sparx. We should get going." Spyral crawled out from beneath the branch and shook fallen needles and mistletoe off herself.

"Spyral," Sparx said, "maybe I shouldn't fly with you right now. Given the whole, uh, glowing thing."

Spyral looked at him. "Yeah, good idea." She held out her wing for him to pull himself onto and waited for him to find a good spot to settle, which eventually was right between her shoulderblades.

Carefully, she continued forward.

* * *

It didn't take long for Sparx to fall asleep there. Spyral resented that he could sleep, but ultimately, she couldn't really blame him. She was tired, too. 

The dawn sun peeked over the horizon, filling the canopy with gentle light at first. The dim sunlight gave Spyral just enough light for her to not be wary of everything that moved. Butterflies fluttered past her, and even though she hadn't eaten since the day before and her stomach growled at her, she tried to ignore them. She didn't really feel like eating right now, anyway.

Ahead, Spyral could hear voices, along with some of that good ol' hooting and hollering. As she approached (after staying where she could easily duck down if she was spotted), she could see that it was some sort of camp, absolutely teeming with apes.

A large ape stood nearby. It looked almost exactly like the one that had attacked them yesterday. Some smaller apes gathered around it.

"Alright, ya flea-bitten poop-slingers. We're here to capture a dragon, on Blaze's orders."

One of the smaller ones piped up. "That little one we found?"

The larger one bared his teeth and huffed. "No! Do you think I would've told Blaze that we let some whelp get away? I told him we exterminated it, so if you find it again, just kill it."

Spyral swallowed a growing lump in her throat.

"No, we're here for the big red one. Ignatio, or something. If it's not here, then you're all getting your rations halved, and we're moving to the next site." The leader crossed its arms. "Well, what are you waiting for? A kiss on the cheek? Get going!"

The band of smaller apes hooted and cackled before they all raced out of the camp as a unit, leaving the leader by itself. It huffed and stomped over to another area of the camp to speak with a really skinny ape.

Spyral backed away from the camp and finally used her wings to nudge Sparx awake.

He grumbled, of course. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, blinking away the last of his sleep. "Nnggh, Spyral? Are we there yet?"

Spyral shushed him. "These ape-things are looking for a dragon. A big red one."

"...And?"

She furrowed her brow. " _And_ that means that there's another dragon around here!"

Sparx sat up. "Yeah, that's fine and all, but do you know where this guy is?"

Spyral hesitated. "...Around?"

Sparx sighed and laid back down. "Wake me up when you actually _find_ him."

Spyral huffed and turned away from the ape camp. Wherever he was, he'd be somewhere else.

* * *

Spyral felt like she'd been walking _forever_. Her paws ached. Her back ached. Her neck ached. At this point, Sparx had woken up and started flying alongside her, though they hadn't said much to each other.

Soon, the pair reached a clearing. Spyral poked her head out and scanned the treeline. Nothing moving but some jewelbeetles and butterflies. She crept forward. There was a small cave entrance across the way. Maybe they could rest there.

A deafening screech permeated the air, causing Spyral the tense so hard that she lurched into the air. She and Sparx both screamed, and dashed forward into the little cave.

"What the heck _was_ that?" Spyral said, panting and wide-eyed.

Sparx shook the shivers out of his body. "Whatever it was, we should probably hide in here so it doean't find us."

"Hello?" rang a deep voice from within the cave. "If that's you, Hark—I told you to leave before the apes get you."

Spyral and Sparx exchanged looks. "Hello?" Sparx called. "I don't know who this 'Hark' guy is but–"

"You're not Hark."

Spyral cocked a brow. "No, we're not. Who are you?" She and Sparx followed the cave to a small hole in the wall with light flickering through.

A red snout appeared on the other side. "What are you doing here?"

"Uh, I was hoping to find a big, red dragon." Spyral lowered her own snout to the hole. "Would that happen to be you?"

"Did the apes send you?"

"Oh, stars, no," Sparx said. "Those scum-suckers nearly killed me."

"Uh-b-but," Spyral interrupted, "they're here, and looking for you."

"Hm," the snout responded. "Can you fit through here?"

Spyral put both paws on the wall. Dirt. She leaned down to the hole and headbutted the edge, loosening the dirt, before digging her claws into the floor and pushing. The hole expanded just enough for Spyral to pull herself through.

The other side was much different. There were a bunch—like, a whole bunch—of little carved statuettes, and the dirt floor gave way to masonry towards a door on the far end of the room. On the closer end of the room, a huge red creature—Spyral guessed _that_ is what a fully-grown dragon looks like—stared at Spyral, mouth agape.

"Uh, you got an issue, buddy?" Sparx crossed his arms.

The dragon looked away. "I'm sorry, but I thought...I thought surely that you'd died."

Spyral looked to Sparx, then back to the dragon. "What do you mean?"

He tightened his jaw. "Twelve years ago, myself and three other Guardians were tasked with keeping you safe. Parents from all over the Realms gave us their eggs for safekeeping, but..." His gaze drifted to the statuettes. "The apes attacked the temple. I don't know how they found us..."

Spyral looked over at the statuettes. Oh.

"The other Guardians stayed to protect the clutch. I took your egg and floated you down the river. It was a slim chance, but it seems you defied the odds." He lowered his head closer to her eye-level. "What is your name?"

Spyral hesitated. "My...my name is Spyral. This is Sparx. What about you?"

He lifted his head back up. "Ignitus." He laid down on his stomach. "Hm...'Spyral'... Is that a dragonfly name?"

Spyral nodded. "Sparx is my brother. Our parents found me and raised me as a dragonfly. I only found out I was a dragon yesterday."

Ignitus's brow raised. "You thought you were a dragonfly?"

Spyral shook her head. "No, no. I didn't know _what_ I was, but it wasn't hard to figure out I wasn't a dragonfly."

"Hey, hey, sorry to interrupt, but are dragons, like, evil? You seem like a real stand-up guy, but like, what about everyone else?" Sparx said, inserting himself into the conversation.

"Sparx!" Spyral scolded.

Ignitus took the question in stride. "Some are, young Sparx. Some are, but I assure you that most of us just want the world to be peaceful again."

"Okay, good. Just wanted to get that out of the way."

Spyral yawned, covering her mouth with her wing. "Is it safe to sleep here? I haven't slept at all."

"Yes. If the apes find us, I will wake you." Ignitus shifted and moved over toward the hole in the wall.

"Thank you," Spyral said. She found a little spot to curl up on, and before she knew it, she was asleep.

**Author's Note:**

> haha yeet i hope this isnt boring as shit


End file.
